Blockbuster to release Apple TV set-top box rival?

Recent comments by a Blockbuster spokeswoman about how the firm will expand its film-rental services, along with unsubstantiated rumours, have sparked claims that the company will release an Apple TV rival later this month.

A spokeswoman for Blockbuster toldHollywood Reporter that the rental firm is looking for ways to transform “into a company that provides access to media content across multiple channels”.

The spokeswoman added that this could see films rented “by mail, through kiosks, through downloading and through portable content-enabled devices”.

But Hollywood Reporter seems to know something nobody else does: that Blockbuster has developed an Apple TV-like unit that’ll be released in the US this month.

Apparently the unit is a “standalone product”, which Blockbuster is said to prefer over an embedded “Blockbuster-branded service in such existing devices as Microsoft's Xbox 360 or TiVo".

A manufacturer for ‘Blockbuster TV’ has yet to come to light, but Hollywood Reporter claimed that the box is being developed in association with Movelink – a web-based video-on-demand company that Blockbuster acquired for $6.6m (£3.3m/€4.1m) in August last year.